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<\/p>\nJune 5 will be the 120th birthday of Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca, the celebrated poet from Granada (Spain), author of \u201cRomancero gitano<\/i>\u201d, \u201cBodas de sangre<\/i>\u201d and \u201cTeor\u00eda y juego del\u00a0duende<\/i>\u201d, among other works in different genres. Lorca, as a poet, always tried to preserve the traditions and feelings of the common people, and because of that he was an early promoter and defender of flamenco art. During the week of this anniversary, Bogot\u00e1 will host the festival\u00a0Flamencos por Am\u00e9rica (Tour 2018 \/ 2019)<\/i>, organized by the Mexican producer Aka\u00eds Chindos, in collaboration with artists and related national entities. This article will focus on those two events.<\/p>\n
Flamenco is not huge in Colombia, but its popularity has been growing steadily, just like in other countries such as Guatemala, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, where the festival will also take place. With this in mind, shall we ask ourselves what are the reasons for this surge in flamenco\u2019s popularity in our continent? Why is it making such an impact in our country and in our region? Is there a flamenco style\u00a0specific<\/i>\u00a0to the American continent?<\/p>\n
Garc\u00eda Lorca, in his lecture \u201cTeor\u00eda y juego del duende<\/i>\u201d (\u201cDuende\u2019s theory and play<\/i>\u201d), states that the underlying spirit of flamenco, beyond the techniques, lyrics and those performing it, is the so-called \u201cduende<\/i>\u201d. Unlike \u201cangels\u201d or \u201cmuses\u201d (who inspire the human beings from the outside, dictating art)\u00a0duende<\/i>\u00a0is an impulse from the artist\u2019s blood, and implies an inner struggle: \u201cduende<\/i>\u00a0is a power, not an action, it\u2019s struggling, not thinking [\u2026] That is, it\u2019s not a matter of talent, but of a true living spirit; that is, from blood; that is, from an ancient culture, from creation in action\u201d. According to the poet, this\u00a0duende<\/i>\u00a0jumped from the Greeks to the dancers of C\u00e1diz, to the Dionysian cries of Silverio\u2019s\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>\u2026 and to Latin America\u2026?<\/p>\n
There is a comedy by the Machado brothers titled \u201cLa Lola se va a los puertos<\/i>\u201d (\u201cLola is going to the ports<\/i>\u201d), where a\u00a0cantaora<\/i>\u00a0(Lola), after a series of love affairs and misfortunes, decides leaving the man she loves to fully devote herself to art: Lola goes to the ports. Yet, where does she go? To Argentina, no less, just like Carmen Amaya did in 1936, and like Garc\u00eda Lorca did three years earlier with his play\u00a0Bodas de sangre<\/i>: straight to the heart of our continent.<\/p>\n
Latin-Americans seize flamenco and experience it because the\u00a0duende<\/i>\u00a0jumped from those dancers of C\u00e1diz (and from the Dionysian cries of Silverio\u2019s\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>) into our territory, and here it finds plenty of working material: strong roots that are broken by forced evictions brought about by conquests, dictatorships and wars; deep sorrows: a tense relationship between love and death; wounds and scars which open occasionally, and a vital impulse which defies abandonment and oblivion, perhaps prompting a leap into the void.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a map or a procedure to find\u00a0duende<\/i>. It just burns our blood like tropical shards, it exhausts, it rejects all the sweet, learned geometry, shattering styles, leaning on the human sorrow that has no solace.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good friend of mine who lived overseas once told me that, when she came back to Colombia, she was amazed when she realized that here, in Latin America, there is a particular impulse that she never saw in other parts of the world, which leads us to overcome whatever obstacles, no matter how devastating they are. People suffer, but refuse to be held down, rather leaping into the void on a daily basis, facing adversity, even if \u201ctheir sorrow has no solace\u201d.<\/p>\n
This impulse to overcome, so typical of our land, this resolve to avoid defeat, needs a voice and promotes\u00a0duende<\/i>\u2019s play. This perhaps explains the increasing popularity of flamenco in Latin America. This art is a product of the sorrows and marginalization of one people defined by their suffering and, in the words of Gerhard Steingress, \u201cit\u2019s men\u2019s symbolic challenge of reality\u201d, which in Latin America is nourished by our particular realities and acquires a new expressive nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll types of art can have\u00a0duende<\/i>\u201d, said Lorca, \u201cbut where it has a wider reach, naturally, is in music, dance and spoken poetry, because these need a live body to be expressed, because these are forms which are perpetually being born and dying, showing their contours in the precise present time\u201d. Thus, flamenco allows us to express our current anguish, at a time when Colombia asks for the end of war, for the end of hatred, for more equality, at a time when singing about death, about silence and about oblivion is still risky, because it exposes them. Even if the song ends, even if the song is forgotten.<\/p>\n
Well, the music, dance and spoken poetry of flamenco will take place in Colombia\u2019s capital from June 2 to June 9, when the\u00a0duende<\/i>\u00a0mentioned by Garc\u00eda Lorca will be felt in the different stages of\u00a0Flamencos por Am\u00e9rica<\/i>, where\u00a0its contours will be shown in the precise present time<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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Clara Ines Galindo Huertas\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 5 will be the 120th birthday of Federico […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,2126,258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-international","category-signature"],"yoast_head":"\n